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Saturday, April 20, 2013

Overheard at the Beach

This post could also be called "The Picture I Didn't Take."

As part of a project I'm involved in, I went to the beach yesterday. My friends and I were just walking and observing in our clothes, with neither the relaxed attitude nor the abbreviated attire of the other beach-goers, most of whom were clearly there for the day.

While we were walking, we saw 4 women and a little girl coming toward us. Each of the women was wearing what I can only describe as a string bikini plus one other article of clothing. One had on the bikini top and a pair of yoga pants. Another was wearing the bikini plus a pair of beach shoes. There were a lot of tattoos in evidence, and each woman weighed over 250 pounds. As you can imagine, there was a lot of swinging and jiggling going on. It was definitely a case of TMI.

What made me want to take a photograph was the contrast of these heavy women laboring along the sand, while the little girl skipped along in front of them in her blonde curls and cute little one-piece suit. She might have been 5 or 6 years old. It was just a great visual.

But I didn't want to be rude and scramble for the camera to take a surreptitious photo, and I wasn't quite ready to be bold enough to ask permission - so I let the moment go by.

Just as we passed them, I heard one say, "And you know, I still have to deal with your sister's probation issue."

5 comments:

I always wonder what kind of child the elderly person might have been like. But now, as I see the many large folks in our society, I wonder what they were like as kids. Were they lithe and active? What happened to those kids? I think your photo would have been very telling. The swimwear - now that's a whole other story, isn't it? And, every day I see more and more tattoos which cover more and more area of the skin. My socially-oriented mind sees a research opportunity. What does it mean?